Our mercenaries in Iraq
The president relies on thousands of private soldiers with little oversight, a disturbing example of the military-industrial complex.
By Jeremy Scahill, JEREMY SCAHILL is a fellow at the Nation Institute and the author of the forthcoming "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army."
January 25, 2007

AS PRESIDENT BUSH took the podium to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday, there were five American families receiving news that has become all too common: Their loved ones had been killed in Iraq. But in this case, the slain were neither "civilians," as the news reports proclaimed, nor were they U.S. soldiers. They were highly trained mercenaries deployed to Iraq by a secretive private military company based in North Carolina  Blackwater USA.

The company made headlines in early 2004 when four of its troops were ambushed and burned in the Sunni hotbed of Fallouja  two charred, lifeless bodies left to dangle for hours from a bridge. That incident marked a turning point in the war, sparked multiple U.S. sieges of Fallouja and helped fuel the Iraqi resistance that haunts the occupation to this day.

Now, Blackwater is back in the news, providing a reminder of just how privatized the war has become. On Tuesday, one of the company's helicopters was brought down in one of Baghdad's most violent areas. The men who were killed were providing diplomatic security under Blackwater's $300-million State Department contract, which dates to 2003 and the company's initial no-bid contract to guard administrator L. Paul Bremer III in Iraq. Current U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who is also protected by Blackwater, said he had gone to the morgue to view the men's bodies, asserting the circumstances of their deaths were unclear because of "the fog of war."

Bush made no mention of the downing of the helicopter during his State of the Union speech. But he did address the very issue that has made the war's privatization a linchpin of his Iraq policy  the need for more troops. The president called on Congress to authorize an increase of about 92,000 active-duty troops over the next five years. He then slipped in a mention of a major initiative that would represent a significant development in the U.S. disaster response/reconstruction/war machine: a Civilian Reserve Corps.

"Such a corps would function much like our military Reserve. It would ease the burden on the armed forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them," Bush declared. This is precisely what the administration has already done, largely behind the backs of the American people and with little congressional input, with its revolution in military affairs. Bush and his political allies are using taxpayer dollars to run an outsourcing laboratory. Iraq is its Frankenstein monster.

Already, private contractors constitute the second-largest "force" in Iraq. At last count, there were about 100,000 contractors in Iraq, of which 48,000 work as private soldiers, according to a Government Accountability Office report. These soldiers have operated with almost no oversight or effective legal constraints and are an undeclared expansion of the scope of the occupation. Many of these contractors make up to $1,000 a day, far more than active-duty soldiers. What's more, these forces are politically expedient, as contractor deaths go uncounted in the official toll.

The president's proposed Civilian Reserve Corps was not his idea alone. A privatized version of it was floated two years ago by Erik Prince, the secretive, mega-millionaire, conservative owner of Blackwater USA and a man who for years has served as the Pied Piper of a campaign to repackage mercenaries as legitimate forces. In early 2005, Prince  a major bankroller of the president and his allies  pitched the idea at a military conference of a "contractor brigade" to supplement the official military. "There's consternation in the [Pentagon] about increasing the permanent size of the Army," Prince declared. Officials "want to add 30,000 people, and they talked about costs of anywhere from $3.6 billion to $4 billion to do that. Well, by my math, that comes out to about $135,000 per soldier." He added: "We could do it certainly cheaper."

And Prince is not just a man with an idea; he is a man with his own army. Blackwater began in 1996 with a private military training camp "to fulfill the anticipated demand for government outsourcing." Today, its contacts run from deep inside the military and intelligence agencies to the upper echelons of the White House. It has secured a status as the elite Praetorian Guard for the global war on terror, with the largest private military base in the world, a fleet of 20 aircraft and 20,000 soldiers at the ready.

From Iraq and Afghanistan to the hurricane-ravaged streets of New Orleans to meetings with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about responding to disasters in California, Blackwater now envisions itself as the FedEx of defense and homeland security operations. Such power in the hands of one company, run by a neo-crusader bankroller of the president, embodies the "military-industrial complex" President Eisenhower warned against in 1961.

Further privatizing the country's war machine  or inventing new back doors for military expansion with fancy names like the Civilian Reserve Corps  will represent a devastating blow to the future of American democracy.

The basic problem in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, wherever, is that US and particularly UK governments will not face reality - that you cannot hope to turn around a country without very large occupation forces. This failure is all the more damning, because US and UK did actually successfully stabilise dozens of countries from Europe to the Far East in the aftermath of WW2 - because they happened to have sufficient force levels in each location to allow the civic structures to be rebuilt without disruption from gangsterism or power-grabs.

The civilian defence contractors are simply filling a gaping void left by the incompetence of governments. It is indeed deeply unsatisfactory - you only have to go to Baghdad to understand that a profit-making company that recruits in the (often unsavoury) security industry is having a detrimental local effect compared to disciplined line soldiers from western democracies. The presence of armed contractors also frequently undermines attempts to rebuild national legal governance - the local population accepts that a foreign occupying army has an international legal status and can operate under ROE agreed at governmental level, whilst armed civilian contractors operate in a legal grey area that is shared with sectarian militias and armed criminals.

Even when dealing with law-abiding private security companies, there is an acute dilemma for the countries where they are incorporated or based: on the one hand they do help fill in gaps that the government cannot cover - eg protecting reconstruction developers or NGOs - but in order to do so they have to be allowed to acquire quasi-military firepower. To survive and operate in Iraq at present (Afghanistan to follow), the security companies need to up-gun to armoured vehicles, armed helicopters, MMGs and HE weapons (ie grenades, mortars and RPGs) - most of which are prohibited by national and host governments, or contra to the spirit of international treaties restricting weapons sales.

The basic problem in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, wherever, is that US and particularly UK governments will not face reality - that you cannot hope to turn around a country without very large occupation forces. This failure is all the more damning, because US and UK did actually successfully stabilise dozens of countries from Europe to the Far East in the aftermath of WW2 - because they happened to have sufficient force levels in each location to allow the civic structures to be rebuilt without disruption from gangsterism or power-grabs.

The civilian defence contractors are simply filling a gaping void left by the incompetence of governments. It is indeed deeply unsatisfactory - you only have to go to Baghdad to understand that a profit-making company that recruits in the (often unsavoury) security industry is having a detrimental local effect compared to disciplined line soldiers from western democracies. The presence of armed contractors also frequently undermines attempts to rebuild national legal governance - the local population accepts that a foreign occupying army has an international legal status and can operate under ROE agreed at governmental level, whilst armed civilian contractors operate in a legal grey area that is shared with sectarian militias and armed criminals.

Even when dealing with law-abiding private security companies, there is an acute dilemma for the countries where they are incorporated or based: on the one hand they do help fill in gaps that the government cannot cover - eg protecting reconstruction developers or NGOs - but in order to do so they have to be allowed to acquire quasi-military firepower. To survive and operate in Iraq at present (Afghanistan to follow), the security companies need to up-gun to armoured vehicles, armed helicopters, MMGs and HE weapons (ie grenades, mortars and RPGs) - most of which are prohibited by national and host governments, or contra to the spirit of international treaties restricting weapons sales.

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My bold

Absolutely correct. A very good friend of mine was among the first troops into Osnatraz in 1945 and he said for weeks afterwards there were troops on every street corner and in the streets picking up suspects and if necessary shooting them if they tried to bolt for it. Not only did thy have sufficient force levels, they were prepared to use them as well.

Unpleasant and not very British (to some peoples minds!) but we didn't build an Empire by being polite. I also seem to recall a programme on German TV about 20 odd years ago about an attempted German POW breakout from a Cage near Cologne. T Atkins opened fire and killed them.

Reminds me of SciFi books I used to read in my mis-spent youth; a prevailing theme was of huge, multinational corporations with more power than governments and more money than God. These MegaCorps had their own laws, paramilitary police, spooks and Military Forces.

Of course, we're not there yet. But big business has more muscle to flex every year.

As for the Civilian Reserve Corp...be afraid. Be very afraid. How long before Blair decides to try the same thing here? After all, we already have a Scottish DEA and a British FBI.

I went over to Blackwater's place last year (f*cking impressive by the way). Most of the Instructors there are happy to chat about their Merc trips to sunny places. I could even recognise those happy go lucky southern boys on certain bits of footage on YouTube!

From what little I saw of them some very switched on and well equipped outfits and some very cowboy outfits .One lot was trying to recruit from our fp company .Nesscary evil possibly otherwise guess theyd be more stabs stagging on for kbr etc.

Reminds me of SciFi books I used to read in my mis-spent youth; a prevailing theme was of huge, multinational corporations with more power than governments and more money than God. These MegaCorps had their own laws, paramilitary police, spooks and Military Forces.

Of course, we're not there yet. But big business has more muscle to flex every year.

As for the Civilian Reserve Corp...be afraid. Be very afraid. How long before Blair decides to try the same thing here? After all, we already have a Scottish DEA and a British FBI.

papa lazarou please tell me which company you are on about that gets what it wants ! most of the equipment me get is bobbins to say the least. has improved in last couple of years but at the end of the day we work for "shareholders" and it all costs to get the kit in and if we didnt like it then go home! there was always someone just out of the mob (with right experience) that could take the place. o and yanks squaddies jsut couldnt quite get round to seeing what the unio jack meant as they are quite keen on blue on blue the tossers